Inside Tucson Business

Dr. Merlin DuVal, founding dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, died Dec. 5 at the age of 84.

In 1971, the year the UA College of Medicine graduated its first class, DuVal was nominated to be assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. During his tenure in Washington, from 1971 to 1973, he was the first federal official to formally warn the public about the dangers of smoking.

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DuVal returned to the UA in 1973, where he served as acting dean of the College of Medicine until 1974 and vice president for health sciences until 1979. He later became president and chief executive of Associated Hospital Systems/American Healthcare Institute in Phoenix and Washington, D.C., and senior vice president for medical affairs for Samaritan Health Services in Phoenix from 1988 until his retirement in 1990. He also worked to establish the UA’s medical school in downtown Phoenix, which opened this year.

DuVal was also among the early architects for what is now the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (called AHCCCS), the state’s version of Medicaid.

Known as Monte among friends, DuVal has been recognized with nine honorary degrees and fellowships and numerous awards for scholarship and public and community service. At the UA, he was given the UA Bobcats Hall of Fame Award in 1978; the College of Pharmacy’s Rufus A. Lyman Community Service Award in 1979; and the College of Medicine Dean’s Award in 1987.

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